Can Not Process Data
You know those hoary old SF stories where the hero defeats the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever by giving it information that can not be logically processed–isn’t “Is the following statement true? ‘This statement is false.’” the classic one?–and thus causing the super-powerful processing of the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever to burn out, usually accompanied by a nice visual of electrical explosions?
Well, whenever I try to process the data below (picked up from William Gibson’s blog, but originally from Vanity Fair) that’s what happens to me. Bolding mine.:
Karl Rove, answering Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire:
Who are your favorite writers?
In alphabetical order: Jorge Luis Borges, Gabor Boritt, Ray Bradbury, G. K. Chesterton, Winston Churchill, David Herbert Donald, T. S. Eliot, Joseph Ellis, Gary Gallagher, F. A. Hayek, Paul Horgan, Paul Johnson, Tom Lea, C. S. Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, John D. MacDonald, David McCullough, Merrill Peterson, Robert Remini, Andrew Roberts, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Evelyn Waugh, and Robert Wiebe.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Travis McGee or Borges himself. (Was he real? Or not?)
Bzzzt
Click
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt
BOOM!
Tags: Books,bush,civil liberties,police powers,society of fear
Kira
Richard B.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I actually think ol’ Travis would probably be front of the line to nutkick Karl.
As a Korean war veteran, who knows what combat is like, I don’t think he’d get behind a bunch of draft dodgers lying his country into way, and sending a lot more people into the situation he had been in.
And as someone who prefers to live off the radar and free, I don’t think he would have taken kindly to any of society of fear stuff that Karl (and “Homeland Security”) have put forward in the last six years or so.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hey even pure unadulterated evil appreciates good writing.